View from the Middle
by Fleeting Illicit Delicious
Summary: Jack thinks about his life while Carly attempts a home cooked meal.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh 5D's.

A/N: Short, sweet and sappy carjack because it's totally awesome that their names create that combination.

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Jack Atlas reclined into a chair across from a window that overlooked the city of Neo Domino. It wasn't the same, towering god view that he had become accustomed to over the past two years. It was an entirely different, part of the city view. The chair was also entirely different. Not the same as his sky scraper house super expensive only reserved for him chair- the one that had the message function that he never made use of. Instead, it was a humble office chair that had been sat in time and time again. Still, it was new to him.

It was also kind of... uncomfortable. How did Carly manage to sit in it for hours pouring over her newspaper articles?

Speaking of which, she was out of the house, on some self-fulfilling I'm going to make the best dinner ever but first I need to buy some food because the fridge is empty mission.

Her absence made Jack sort of bored. Of course, he could maintain himself without her around and for another thing boredom seemed to follow him in and out of duels. That unsatisfying feeling. Without any sort of goal or impending doom to take care of, boredom became his nook-niche. Which was why he was idly staring out the window thinking about just the right sort of gel he should buy because god knows Carly didn't have any such hair product and how he was going to buy that gel without any money coming in from Godwin or whoever it was who paid his bills anymore.

The whole idea of finding a job made him chew on his thumbnail a bit, a habit he must have picked up from Carly. Of course, he could imagine Jack the Pro Duelist, but he could not imagine Jack the fast food manager or Jack the car salesman. Either job would provide a steady pay check, which was something he needed and wanted, but such jobs- the humility of them! He'd make a damn good D Wheel salesman though, he had to admit it.

And it wasn't so much that he wanted the money to get hair gel or regain any sort of glory, he just wanted to do something that was entirely his own for once. Team Satisfaction, Duel King, Singer- those _jobs_ were all other people's ideas. They were either destiny or some boyish fantasy made reality. He was really getting tired of living in fantasies so much. This time he wanted something real that he could touch, something that he had created all on his own. No more dying dreams.

He liked the idea of it. Something new. Something different. It gave him a feeling like waking up to Martha making pancakes because it's just one of those days that she feels like it and therefore everything's going to be great today, because it's going to be a brand new day in what seems like a brand new world-

And that's when arms enveloped him in the embrace of chairback and girl. She was a cheery smile in the reflection of the glass.

"I'm home~!"

"Carly."

"Was there something you were looking at?"

"No. Well, maybe."

"If I knew you liked looking at the sky so much I would have rented an apartment on the top floor. It would be expensive though- and that height! Yikes."

"It's fine."

"Well okay! You just sit right here and I'll get dinner started."

"It's not even four yet."

"Oh. Ahaha. It'll probably take me that long to figure out what I'm making." And she dashed off to the kitchen.

Which made Jack follow her in order to prevent any sort of kitchen fire/ accident/ anything else which could possibly happen with that girl and knives/ stoves/ raw meat.

Carly, she was something new too. Well, maybe not entirely new, but new enough for him. He'd embrace her _newness_ and work off from there.

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A/N: Ummm yes. ...Gosh, I've been sitting here for five minutes and still can't think of anything intelligent to say about this fic.... which says a lot, doesn't it?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh 5D's.

A/N: Your reviews got to me so I continued it because it was reasonably easy to continue. Expect even more pointlessness (because that's really what this story has going for it) and more Jack and Carly cuteness… or whatever it is they have.

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In the kitchen Carly was managing to hold up well, or however well one does hold up while balancing a cookbook, a frying pan, a large carton of eggs and an orange in their hands. Jack almost regretted stepping into the situation, as the girl almost dropped the contents of what she was carrying, having some random spasm at Jack Atlas in the kitchen, attempting to help with whatever misguided track she was on. Really, the whisk in his hands must have pushed her over the edge.

"Jack, don't worry ahh- I can do it."

Worried? Well, he might call it worry when he's expecting the apartment to explode or at the very least food so terrible that even the demons in hell would throw it back.

"I'll watch." He simply stated.

It was entirely interesting to watch how Carly was going to make food without the simplest idea of what to do.

It was kind of like his situation and finding a livelihood of his own he might actually enjoy without ever having lived something of his own he actually, truly enjoyed.

Yes, it would be interesting.

He put the whisk down and sat at the table, eyes fixed on the energetic blur which was avoiding a cabinet avalanche.

He really wanted to step in at that moment, but something held him back. If Carly wanted to make dinner herself so bad, he wouldn't be the one ruin that for her. He always had that instinct, of knowing when to step in or when to simply watch from the sidelines. Sometimes watching from the sidelines hurt more than a punch to the ribs or the debris of a crumbling ceiling coming down on him.

As soon as Carly unearthed a large mixing bowl from the multitude of kitchenware, having successfully dodged the avalanche, which lay in a helpless pile on the counter and floor, she went to work on the food.

Jack usually found it easy to guess what kind of food was being made from the ingredients. Just like his opponent's Duel Monster's strategy, each ingredient or card was supposed to form some type of combination. It wasn't true with Carly's ingredients. The food: oranges, green onions, chicken, soysauce, peppers, ginger and a multitude of other disparate items were perhaps so haphazardly chosen that it was either the cryptic strategy of a master or the play of an unintelligible fool.

As unrefined as it was, Jack had to admit that the smell coming from whatever-it-was was pretty good.

The oil pop pop popped as the chicken and peppers sizzled. The ginger and onions made a mouth watering combination as they mixed their aromas together. Carly had become so focused, chopping each vegetable while keeping an eye on the stir fry, that even if Jack chose to strip down to his underwear she probably wouldn't have noticed it.

Not that he would.

He admired that kind of focus in a person. Just like when Yuusei started on his first D-Wheel, nothing could get to him with set his mind to it. It made Jack sort of envious, and not just because his once close friend was giving him the cold shoulder. He wanted to have that passion for something. He had discovered it in card games, had used it to take over Satellite with his buddies, but after that it had just sort of fizzled out.

Finding it again wasn't such an easy task. He still didn't think he had it, but seeing his monsters on the race track, their white hot light consuming the audience, his soul singing to the hum of the bike's engine, had been the closest thing to finding that part of himself again.

Now, if only he could find himself in something that wasn't an elaborate scheme to convince the people of Neo Domino that everything in life was just peachy keen and part of their population did not live in poverty at their expense.

When Carly had finally finished, half an hour of Jack sitting idly there later, a plateful of orange chicken was placed in front of him.

Carly admired her handiwork, which was a little more than edible; now that Jack had crunched on it, savoring its homemade taste complete with reasonably priced ingredients.

"Chinese food?"

"I missed having Chinese take-out." Carly admitted as she munched on her own serving. She took a swig of water with each bite, either because the chicken was still hot off the frying pan or because-

Jack grabbed Carly's glass of water and gulped it down so fast not even Carly was quite sure if had been Jack or if the water had just disappeared out of thin air.

"Maybe I should have gone a little easy on those peppers."

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A/N: Let me know if there's anything that sounds wonky because I'm sort of out of it right now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Yugioh 5D's.

**A/N:** I finally think I have a direction for this story. Or maybe I'll change my mind. I don't know.

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After the incident with the dinner marathon- food so hot Carly and him had to drink three glasses of water just to scarf it down- the girl had the perfect idea on how to conclude the night.

"A movie?"

"Yeah, yeah. A movie! Wouldn't it be cool! I know this movie theater on the other side of town that isn't ridiculously overpriced. What do you say?"

"Sure." He said with a bit of trepidation.

Carly's life was full of spontaneous activities and last minute decisions. Jack learned that within 24 hours of meeting her. He really couldn't say he wanted to break her perfectly random pattern of existence because of his own apprehensions toward civilian life, so he obliged to the mundane outing.

"Then it's settled!" Carly beamed and headed to her room.

Jack stayed in the kitchen. His stomach roiled, and it wasn't just from dinner (which he actually did enjoy despite the spicyness). He didn't really want to see a movie, or rather be seen seeing a movie. It just seemed too common, but hell, he wasn't King anymore, he didn't have to please the masses. Other than for showmanship and the occasional rival he didn't have a holier-than-thou attitude. Still, it seemed strange to join the flocks of a society he had never been a part of and who would either despise him or hound him down because of his fall from celebritydom.

He still remembered their words after he had first met Carly, fierce whispers which demeaned the most fragile and powerful part of himself. His pride. He sneered bitterly at the memory until he realized he was just releasing his anger into the empty space of the kitchen. A refrigerator wasn't a good sparring mate. The sink didn't look too good either.

"Ready to go?" Carly's cheery voice released Jack from his musings. She hadn't changed at all really, donning a light sweater instead of her vest.

"Yeah." He could have changed into something less noticeable than his regular outfit and perhaps he could have avoided the strange stares when they walked out of the building, but he was Jack Atlas and it was part of who he was. He didn't want to become part of the crowd.

Which was what he realized: he wasn't afraid of what they thought of him as. Carly smiled at him, striding gleefully. They walked down block after block until they reached the subway station.

"The subway." Jack stopped in front of the entrance. He never rode a subway in his life. The night was just starting and already becoming full of little surprises.

"Yeah, it would take way too long to get to the other side of town. Actually I _used_ to have a car." Helpless anger pinched her words. Jack wasn't sure if he wanted to know what happened to the car just yet so he saved the topic for another day.

"Let's go in." Even with being new to the subway, he still knew what rush hour was.

Swarms of people rushed in and out and for once Jack was appalled and amazed at the multitudes. So this was urban life, the _real _and_ raw_ urban life that nearly everybody here had to put up with, had to find a way to survive somehow. And then there were people like Jack who helped them get through it, entertained them or used to. And behind those people were people like Carly who helped people like Jack get through it by just being themselves.

"Oh gosh. I forgot about the crowds." Carly gawked. Her ignorance was a virtue. Jack was grateful he had forgotten the crowd's stares as well, had become more concerned about just being able to get trough them and into the station. Carly clutched his arm as they descended into the subterranean world, as if to lead him on some new, exciting adventure.

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**A/N:** Agoraphobia: The fear of crowds. Maybe Jack isn't really afraid of crowds, but he hasn't really contested with them before either.

This one of those short transistion chapters. But the whole story is meant to be short and sweet anyway.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh 5D's.

A/N: Hello again. I keep forgetting what to say about these. But I think that subways and every form of travels bring with them a sort of adventure, because, as long as you have no idea where you're going, you can be one of those romantic explorers of old. Ahh! The excitement! The rush! Imagine it! Or you could be just as disenchanted as Jack would be going under ground to an overcrowded station during rush hour.

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Jack was aware of two things as he entered the underground. The first one was that it was exceptionally plain. The second was that it was exceedingly bright.

He only had a vague impression of subways and not even those impressions could prepare him for the rush of the scene. It was nothing like the old subway tunnel Yuusei and his friends resided in- dark, in shambles, ghostly. In this place there were no ghosts, no echoes of the past Domino. They had been covered up by machines and pavement and thousands upon thousands of treading feet.

He stood there aghast at the magnitude of the structure until Carly took the initiative to lead him to the ticketing machines. A few simple clicks and a ticket was shoved into his hand.

"Gah. I pressed the wrong button!" Carly wept about her own ticket. "What am I gonna do with a ¥2,000 ticket?"

She continued to drag Jack until they arrived at the gates. "Umm… just put your ticket in the slot and walk through… oh, and don't forget to grab your ticket again." Carly demonstrated, walking to the other side.

Jack had rather sketchy feelings about the gates. He still remembered getting stuck at one of them. Eventually he had figured it out, but that didn't make up for the embarrassment.

Speaking of embarrassment, a line behind him had started to form and about a dozen impatient people were starting to get annoyed.

"Move it! We don't have all day."

He only had to turn his head, give them all one look and shout, "I'll move when I'm damn well ready!" for them to stop in their tracks, mouths still slacked.

He then deliberately took his time with the machine, getting everything perfect about the movement from one side to the other side. By then most of the people behind him had moved on to another gate.

"Wooooow," Carly enthused, smiling from ear to ear. "Come with me to a video game release." Together they hurried to a subway map.

Carly had taken the subways before, but had forgotten mostly every route. Jack had a good sense of direction, but since the subways were utterly new to him he had no idea how to navigate them. Together the pair made a barely passable commuter.

"Well, I'm really not sure but let's go with this one." Carly stuck her finger on a pink route and before Jack had a moment to object he was hurried to the platform.

He had to admit it, the entrance crowd was nothing compared to the people on the platform. It was every bit of the word packed and coupled with a bit of panic. The panic of course was optional and Carly didn't feel it at all.

"Busy night, huh?"

He didn't know how to answer her, not without disgust, so he nodded. Looking from above he could trace her line of sight just beyond her glasses, as if he knew she was thinking about the multitudes of human beings and where they all were going to. She looked, in stark contrast to her usual behavior, neither worried nor nervous. She had adopted the security of being simply mystified and calm. That was the only way to travel mass transit, he noted. _Calmly_.

He also studied the people, noticing their behaviors. _Only step on the yellow line if you need to, never block the entrances, personal space means nothing_- all the unspoken rules of a society completely different from the one on the surface.

The train arrived with rush of underground breeze, cool and a much needed relief from the sweltering mass of body heat. Carly led him in, a rush of "This way, oh wait, no, that way" and eventually he was on the train standing up and uncomfortable. Waves of commuters were still pouring in and he braced himself for the human crunch when the doors closed. People piled next to him on all sides and if he wasn't taller than all of them he would have found it suffocating.

"Ready?" Carly's voice rose above the rest of the chatter.

"Ready for w-"

The subway took off and it felt like the floor had been lifted out from under him. Not just him though, about all the others behind him were forced to move backwards and he felt Carly, using every bit of her strength, to hold him up.

He would have thanked her when he regained his balance but after she apologized to the people in back of him, "Oh no, no, no- wait. It's his first time on the subway everyone, cut him some slack please!" he thought better of it.

"I can apologize for myself."

"You'd better not take your chances in a packed train if it's anything like how you excuse yourself for holding up a line," she teased. He hated how she could use something she herself thought was cool against him.

"I know that!" But really, he wouldn't have said sorry to the people behind him. He wouldn't have even thought about it.

As the train emptied and re-emptied at each stop Jack had the fleeting notion to jump off and get out. He held himself back as Carly assured him, "Only a few more to go."

Upon reaching ground level at last he knew he should have gone with his instincts.

"What? I can't believe they changed the routes on me!"

The hardened faces on the street answered all of Jack's unspoken questions.

* * *

*I bought a $20 subway ticket once by mistake. Not fun when it gets demagnetized for no reason. :/

You know what? I think Jack really needs to yell at more people for him to be totally in character. xD Reviews are nice, really, really nice.


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